Monthly Archives: August 2015

Thus concludeth Blaugust 2015

I had a lot of plans for this final Blaugust post but instead I find myself meanly sabotaged by sea sickness and headaches which is why I will be cutting this short. That’s the rather inconvenient thing about blogging every day, sometimes you got nothing to share but real life. But hey, blaugust is all about putting it out there no matter what, right?

I can’t believe it’s August 31st and that I actually managed to stick with an entire month of daily blogging! It was an experience worth having and taught me a few things about how easily I can get into writing if I really set my mind to it and also, that it really helps to plan some topics in advance. That said, I am not going to turn into a daily blogger after this – I still appreciate the time to flesh out my thoughts and wait for a topic or theme to itch badly enough for me to dig deeper. Some days it’s nice to get home after work and not feel pressured to write or just spend time commenting on other blogs instead. I’ve always put time aside to interact with the community which is much harder to keep up when you’re also supposed to write on a daily basis. Oh and play games, that’s right.

A big high-five to everyone who was along for this mad blaugust ride and congratulations to all who saw the challenge through! I am proud to have been a member of the party. A special thank you goes to Belghast for being the organizing wizard behind this, I promise to add my last few post links to the forums asap! I still intend to do another blogroll update post after today with more bloggers I’ve come across thanks to blaugust. There’s also an AMA question I received from Bel and at least two more prompts I didn’t get a chance to write on (it will happen!). Seems I won’t be running out of topics for a while to come.

Seeing how Wilhelm already comprised a complete list of blaugust bloggers for this year, am shamelessly going to copy that and signal-boost everyone one last time:

Congrats everyone! And keep that blogging spirit rollin’!

Gamer Space [#Blaugust 30]

I recently moved to a new home which came with the perk of having my own gamer room/office again. I’ve truly missed this, even if I’ve always done my best to carve out a cosy niche or corner for my desk, books and other bling that makes me happy. I’ve been hanging the same pictures and room lights for over 12 years now, I keep the same books on my shelf and the same family sword on my wall. My friends who have followed me from first to second, to third and fourth apartment through the years, tell me how my room always looks the same no matter where I am. My personal space means comfort and stability as much as identity.

The Future is VR and I can’t wait (#Blaugust 29)

Today marks the first day I was able to try out the VR technology of the future. I’ve been waiting for this a long time, the last few months I’ve been keeping close tabs on what’s happening with the Vive especially. It so happens that we got our hands on an Occulus Rift for the weekend, so imagine my excitement.

And it does not disappoint, although I feel fairly nauseous as I write this. My friend tells me I’ve been too greedy during my first steps, exploring the villa in Tuscany sim at too fast a pace – this vertigo is something I did not anticipate to this degree. I hear it’s all part of an adjustment process however and I can’t wait to see more. I’ve been in outer space and up a skyscraper, I ambled into a scene from Spirited Away chasing the dust puppies, I’ve been hunted by witches. For a fair few seconds, the experience was smooth enough to fully immerse myself and lose all notion of where I really was, in favor of the VR. It was bewildering, scary and wonderful.

I can’t wait to visit Tamriel. I cannot even fathom how it would feel walking through Elwynn Forest in true first person mode. I imagine I’d break out into tears arriving at the Lion’s Pride Inn, listening to the music. Be still, my heart.

Is this the future of gaming? It sure as hell is! And I can’t wait.

MMO Regrets Round-Up [#Blaugust 28]

This was gonna be part of a final recap post for blaugust but I realized I already have other topics coming up for the next three days and oh my, then the month is already over – can you believe it?

One of my blogging prompts for this mad ride of blaugust was MMO regrets. I am generally not much into remorse in my private life and I have little tolerance for the type of gamer scorn that follows bad MMO breakups. As commented on one of Braxwolf’s posts recently, the easiest way to have a life without regrets is not to regret anything. That seems like a well-duh thing to say but at a second and third glance, that line becomes more powerful.

When it comes to my time inside MMO worlds however and especially online communities, there’s a thing or two that’s left a bitter after-taste in my mouth. Not an all-encompassing grief or anything but a smear on that picture nonetheless. I think MMO regrets are a pretty fascinating topic because rarely do players invest as much (in many different ways) as they do in this genre. And indeed, there’s a lot of company when it comes to this topic:

My MMO regrets: The Iron Dagger
MMO regrets: Light Falls Gracefully
MMO regrets: Biobreak
MMO regrets: Gaming SF
Regrets, I’ve had a few: Tobold
My MMO regrets: Healing the Masses
The back burner and regret: Through Wolf’s Eyes
My own MMO wistful regrets: I have touched the Sky
They’re all okay by me: Why I game

I’ve a feeling there were more but blaugust is hard to keep track of, especially when you don’t get pinged directly. If I missed anyone or if you’re yet to post on this topic, let me know so I can add ya!

Lamenting Cover Art [#Blaugust 27]

Coming across an amazing Castlevania cover the other day on twitter, it hit me how much I miss the old game covers for videogames. I remember how we revered those boxes of nes and snes titles in the early days – how bold and colorful and over-the-top epic many of them were!

What happened? Okay, for one we entered the digital age of gaming. I admit I don’t miss the dust settling on rows of physical game copies. Still, I appreciate great concept art for games, posters, teasers, thumbnails in my Steam gallery. There’s no reason why digital gaming should go coverless, is there? Elaborate covers are a chance to tell a story within mere seconds. Like a main theme, they can sell a promise and herald things to come. They are someone’s vision of what the game should be, could be. They are distilled like poetry.

Do not even attempt to compare this to WoW cover art.

But who has time for poetry these days?

Fig: A better Way to kickstart Games? [#Blaugust 26]

In case you haven’t heard yet, there’s now a new crowdfunding platform exclusively for games and it’s called Fig (yes really). As reported on Wired, Fig’s advisory board includes indie studio heads and kickstarter heavyweights such as Tim Schafer, Brian Fargo and Feargus Urquhart. Besides focusing on games only and a highly curated, much shorter list of available projects at any given time, there’s namely one other big difference between Fig and KS:

‘But the biggest difference is Fig will combine rewards-based crowdfunding with equity investing. Fans can support Outer Wilds to get rewards, but accredited investors can get a share of revenue once the game is released. Fig CEO Justin Bailey, who was the COO at Double Fine, says campaigns eventually will be opened to non-accredited investors, meaning anyone could become an investor in a game and reap the rewards.

“Look at what happened to Oculus,” he says, referring to the pioneering VR company that started as a Kickstarter project. “It was sold to Facebook for 2 billion dollars, and the people who were involved, the superfans who were getting behind Oculus to make that possible, they didn’t see any of that. It would seem like they should, since they had a pivotal role in that coming about.”’ [source]

As someone who only ever kickstarted something twice in her life, supporting friends on both occasions, I don’t know that I have an opinion on this new crowdfunding option for games. What happened with Occulus Rift was definitely a low if not foreseeable act, so from that point of view Fig is a response that should appeal to enthusiast funders with bigger pockets. I’ve come across negative voices in a few places too, sarcastic comments about gamers requiring their own platforms for everything far away from all other media and culture, isolating themselves like the weird bunch they are.

I wasn’t aware how the variety of products on kickstarter meant such an awful lot to some people but maybe I’m missing something. Anyway, do you think Fig is a good addition to videogame crowdfunding or should games remain on generalist sites like kickstarter, together with comic books, combat kitchen ware and towel shorts?

Another Battle Bards Episode [#Blaugust 25]

Today marks the 57th episode of Battle Bards, the world’s so-far one and only MMO music podcast. It’s not an anniversary of any kind, it’s neither a round number nor an even one (in fact it’s a prime!) – to me however, it’s another episode I have loved recording for our fellow VGM aficionados out there. After 2.5 years, Syp, Steff and myself are still at it, enjoying the verbal pingpong we’ve developed over time in good spirit, as always. That makes me happy and that’s a reason to celebrate.

Today’s episode is dedicated to the music of Blade & Soul, that Korean NC Soft title we’ve yet to see launch officially in the west. The soundtrack is beautiful and diverse, not in the most elaborate sense but something I listen to ever so often. Check it out!

Zomg Double-Subbed?? [#Blaugust 24]

Last night while working on my Wildstar housing showcase for blaugust, I realized something rather extraordinary:

I am officially double-subbed to two MMOs. This happened in 2015, that slow year for MMO releases!

Unplanned occurrences aside (let’s forget that I may or may not have remained subbed to WoW by mistake), I can’t remember the last time I was subbed simultaneously to two different games. I’ve always been subbed to something since 2002, namely FFXI, WoW, Age of Conan, Rift, LOTRO, Wildstar and now FFXIV. I would often combine this playtime with a free-to-play title like Allods or Tera, or then a buy-to-play game such as GW2. I like variety these days but being double-subbed is rare even for me.

Once more with feeling

I don’t know how long this will last but in terms of my current enjoyment with MMO gaming, I find it quite a remarkable and certainly unexpected state of affairs. In the years following my WoW spree, I was struck by a general MMO-malaise that many ex-WoW players undoubtedly shared. New games had much to live up to, sometimes too much, while I did my best not to qualify every different feature in terms of “better or worse than in WoW” – which is ironic given that I left WoW because it clearly wasn’t so great any longer.

I feel like I have finally overcome this mindset. I approach new titles without all the past baggage. It’s definitely nice to be immersed in that one MMO don’t get me wrong, it is also a very positive sign however that I can still find enough fun and enjoyment in MMOs to subscribe for two games in 2015. Even if I’m not necessarily representative, I feel hopeful for this genre. What I look forward to in the coming years is more stability; fewer new releases, more quality content for existing games. Fingers crossed!

With that in mind, I want to highlight this youtube fan guide on all the more recent changes to Wildstar (not the upcoming f2p changes but what’s been done up to now). I agree with the commenter that the pace and difficulty have been improved by Carbine in many events. As he points out too, it is sad the tweaking comes this late and one can only hope more players will give the game one more chance come F2P, together with those who have never tried it. Coming from FFXIV, I hold a torch for second chances: really, what’s there to lose?

New Wildstar Housing Tour! My Cassian Crib incl. Gameroom [#Blaugust 23]

Now that I am resubbed to Wildstar and have access to my housing plot again, I realized I should really get another housing tour done before free-to-play hits. I did a couple of videos last year when I was still playing, but I never actually got around to frapsing my own crib. This has now been amended.

The following is a tour of my fully furnished 3-floor Cassian home in Wildstar, including a custom made veranda with botanical lab, my plushie collection and of course the gamer room with multiplayer! Carbine have added a lot of interesting construction tiles since I made all this, including round shapes and glass panels but am not gonna mess around with these before F2P since I expect to redo everything completely once we have access to the bigger plots and new housing items. There will be so much to do….anyway, enjoy this quick tour of mi casa, status pre-f2p!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIoZFDqs1UY

FFXIV “High Adventure IV” [#Blaugust 22]

Back in primary school we used a lot of watercolor and Neocolor wax crayons in art class. I remember when our teacher showed us a special (and messy) technique one day, in which you started off covering an entire leaf of strong paper in all the different colors of the rainbow, wildly mixed. This first layer would either be normal crayon or water color.

Once everything was dry and finished, a second layer of thick black Neocolor would go on top and completely cover up the entire page. Such a smeary affair it was that we all looked like chimney sweepers afterwards, with black wax covering our hands and faces and god knows what else. But that’s when the real fun started and we finally got to carve out the actual image with a piece of wire or a spatula-like instrument, by scratching away fine lines out of the wax to reveal a magical world of colors underneath. I absolutely loved this technique for its wondrous effect and that negative contrast.

This fourth pick in my ongoing FFXIV “High Aventure” screenshot series is therefore an homage to those early days of creative experimentation. I think am gonna call it Cloud Watcher.